This encoded finding aid is compliant with Stanford EAD Best Practice Guidelines, Version 1.0.

Overview

Call Number: SC0206

Creator:
Smith, Willet.

Creator:
Wallace, W.B.

Title: San Francisco earthquake and fire collection

Dates: 1906-1979

Physical Description:
5.5 Linear feet (7 boxes)

Summary: Eyewitness accounts of the 1906 earthquake at Stanford; eyewitness account of earthquake damage to the Stanford and Hopkins
houses in San Francisco; and magazine and newspaper accounts of the earthquake and its aftermath.

Language(s): The materials are in English.

Repository:
Dept. of Special Collections & University Archives.

Stanford University Libraries.

557 Escondido Mall

Stanford, CA 94305-6064

Email: speccollref@stanford.edu

Phone: (650) 725-1022

URL: http://library.stanford.edu/spc

Administrative Information

Information about Access

Collection is open for research; materials must be requested at least 24 hours in advance of intended use.

Ownership & Copyright

Property rights reside with the repository. Literary rights reside with the creators of the documents or their heirs. To obtain
permission to publish or reproduce, please contact the Public Services Librarian of the Dept. of Special Collections.

Cite As

[identification of item], San Francisco Earthquake and Fire Collection (SC0216), Department of Special Collections and University
Archives, Stanford University Libraries, Stanford, Calif.

Scope and Content of Collection

The collection includes eyewitness accounts of the 1906 earthquake at Stanford; and eyewitness account of earthquake damage
to the Stanford and Hopkins houses in San Francisco by Ah Wing, employee of the Stanford family (in Chinese with an English
translation). Also included are magazine and newspaper accounts of the earthquake and its aftermath; and a 1908 map of San
Francisco showing reconstruction of the city.

Autograph postcard and 5 autograph letters, singed in pencil, to his mother and sisters in long Island, NY. 41 pages in all.

On the night before the quake, a young resident of Long Island, Everett Smith, arrived in the city with a friend and checked
into a rooming house. At 5: 13 am the earthquake struck, and two days later, Smith manages to scribble the following note
to his mother back home: "Got Out of the earth quake & fire all OK Am stopping in the sand hills on the beach. The town is
completely gone. Good Bye. Willett"

In a series on six letters, Smith describes his experiences. On April 22, he writes: "I got here at six oclock with my friend
and we went around town and took in the Sights and my friend and I looked for a rooming house for the night and we was going
up to one of the big places but I dont know what told me it seems it was nature not to go and I didnt so I went down to the
water front and got a room at a place I knew. We went to bed about 11 o'clock and must have been sleeping on the edge of the
bed because I was thrown on the floor by the shock. I and my friend tried to get Out of the room and the door was jammed.
We bursted it to splinters. The stairs and halls was full of flying transomes and plaster. We rushed downstairs and across
to the docks and we was dodging live wires and bricks and everything. There we were in our underclothes. The house went in
a heap. We got a pair a pants and a jumper out of a broken clothing store window ." "[W]hen we came to our senses from the
fright the whole town was blazing in twenty different places." "The fire burned so fierce it drove us up town and we had to
run. It seemed the fire just roared."

Smith writes vividly of the horrors he witnessed, describing conditions everywhere as such that "it can never be put in prim
it was so terrible.' "Thousand of families have not got a blanket to put over them. The suffering is terrible with the women
and children. I guess a thousand or more was killed by falling houses and pneumonia has set in and the dead wagons are overcrowded
... We was two days without a mouth full to eat ... i have stood it awful good but I don't know what I have been doing half
of the time."

In a letter of April 24, self-addressed from "The Ruins of San Francisco", Smith writes: "The thieving and pillaging is something
terrible & the troops have shot and killed lots of crooks ... the women are going plumb loco ... They won't go back in their
houses and a good many have went out of their head ... the rich and poor are about alike here now ... I could not buy a loaf
of bread if I had a million dollars. There isn't a baker shop in San Francisco that has an oven left. They have all got caved
in by the quake ... "

" ... Surely, I never expected to be alive and writing to you today ... I have been out of doors ever since Wednesday morning
5 1/ 2 o'clock - We were all packed to leave, the hotel is burned down it rocked so we could not stand to get Our clothes
on and got our trunks in the street - we paid $7.00 to get our two trunks to the park - There are thousands of people here,
rich & poor - no one has anything, but a few bed clothes and clothes, the whole town is burned up, you can't tell the streets
- We sat in the first park we got to until the fire reached us and sawall the main part of the town burn - such pitiful sights
you never heard of - people men & women carrying their goods all day and night. I did not see any of the dead but there are
hundreds dead and wounded - There was a baby born in the Park Wednesday night - we sleep under the trees - the Government
is feeding us - they dole out rations you stand in a line guarded by the soldiers and are given whatever they have to give
... yesterday evening one line was 10 thousand people long - we build fires to cook by, but have to out them out at night
... the millionaires are sending food to us - and will send tents to us as soon as they can be gotten. I am so shakey I can't
hardly hold the pencil- But I am so thankful I am alive and not hurt ... "

Box 1, Folder 12

Stansky, Leo: Letter to Ralph Hansen1976 Jun 5

Box 1, Folder 12.1

Talbot, Earle

Letter [photocopy]1906 Apr 25

Transcript of interview on the earthquake [photocopy]1972

Box 6

Tiwena, Jennie1906 Apr 20

Scope and Content Note

Golden Gate Park San Francisco April 20 1906

Dear Gussie,

We are alive and not hurt thank Almighty God for it. I don't know whether I can write an intelligent or legible letter but
I thought you all would like to know how we fared.Truly I never expected to be alive and writing to you today.This is a book
leaf-if I can get an envelope I will send this, there are no stamps to be had. I wrote to you all on Monday night before the
earth quake. I have been out of doors since Wednesday morning 3 o'clock. We were all packed to leave.The hotel is burned down,it
rocked so we could not stand to get our clothes on,it was only 8 stories but we were on the 2nd floor.We got our clothes on
and got our trunks in the street.We paid 7$ to get our trunks to the park.There are thousands of people here rich & poor-no
one has anything but a few bedclothes,the whole town is burned up,you can't tell the streets.We sat in the first park we got
to until the fire reached us and saw all the main part of the town burn-such pitiful sights you never heard of-people,men
and women carrying their goods all day and night. I did not see any of the dead but there are hundreds of dead and wounded.There
was a baby born in the park Wednesday nite. We slept under the trees-the Government is feeding.^us-they ^out rations-you stand
in a line guarded by soldiers and are given whatever they have to give-we have a place to eat and drink. Yesterday,one line
was 10 thousand people long.We build fires to cook by but have to put them out at night.We will leave for Los Gatos as soon
as possible.They will issue free tickets to all jggts of the U.S.The millionaires are sending food to us and will send tents
as soon as they can be gotten.I am so shaky I can hardly hold the pencil.But I am so thankful I am alive and not hurt.O Lord,how
thankful I am to be alive.We have not lost any thing yet out of here.One gentleman lent us a matress,two pillows, a blanket
and a quilt.One night we had nothing but two pillows and a bench.I ache terribly but hate to'complain.I sent you a piece of
cardboard yesterday but donlt know whether'you will get it. Do write to us when we get to Los Gatos-we have made some friends
out here and are getting along very well if I can only keep well. We have nowhere so I guess we will survive,

"You must pardon me for the long delay in answering your letter reminding me of my promise to visit my Kentucky kinsmen this
year. Since April 18th a day of disaster in this state all plans for the present year had to be re-formed and in many cases
abandoned. We have all been living in a state of uncertainty. Every day since April 18th up to last Monday has been a legal
holiday. It became necessary for the Governor to declare successive holidays in order that the banks throughout the state
could arrange to safely resume business and that the Legislature might be convened in extra session and enact some new laws
necessary to protect property rights suddenly imperiled by the great calamity that befell San Francisco and other near by
places on that date. A cessation of judicial business for forty-five days has left the trial courts with congested dockets
rendering it necessary for most of the judges to continue holding court during the usual summer period for vacation. Unhappily
I find myself in this situation and I will be unable to leave the state during his year ... Fortunately none of us were injured
by the great earthquake. The shock here was slight and no property was injured. My daughter Ethel was at Stanford University
when it occurred. The University is about sixty miles from San Francisco. It suffered a loss of about $4,000,000 in the destruction
and injury of many fine buildings. Two lives were lost one being that of a student and six other students were quite badly
injured. Communication with the outside world was immediately interrupted and it was several days before we could get direct
news from Ethel. She was not injured though when the shock occurred near 5 o'clock in the morning she and her companions thought
the world was coming to an end when the furniture was being tossed about the room and she could see the fine structures of
the university falling into shapeless masses of stone. It will be some time for our State to fully recover from the effects
of so great a calamity but San Francisco will be rebuilt because of its almost matchless harbor and because it was proven
that modern steel structures can stand uninjured after such an earthquake. To many of us who have known that city almost all
of our lives it will not probably be the San Francisco of which we were so proud. The loss resulting from the earthquake there
has been estimated at not more than $70,000,000 but the great fire with no water to stay its progress, increased the loss
to thirty times that ... "

An autograph letter signed "W.B. Wallace " on "Superior Court Chambers" letterhead. He wrote to Mrs. Wallace M. Bartlett of
Louisville, Kentucky: "You must pardon me for the long delay in answering your letter reminding me of my promise to visit
my Kentucky kinsmen this year. Since April 18th a day of disaster in this state all plans for the present year had to be re-formed
and in many cases abandoned. We have all been living in a state of uncertainty. Every day since April 18th up to last Monday
has been a legal holiday. It became necessary for the Governor to declare successive holidays in order that the banks throughout
the state could arrange to safely resume business and that the Legislature might be convened in extra session and enact some
new laws necessary to protect property rights suddenly imperiled by the great calamity that befell San Francisco and other
near by places on that date. A cessation of judicial business for forty-five days has left the trial courts with congested
dockets rendering it necessary for most of the judges to continue holding court during the usual summer period for vacation.
Unhappily I find myself in this situation and I will be unable to leave the state during his year ... Fortunately none of
us were injured by the great earthquake. The shock here was slight and no property was injured. My daughter Ethel was at Stanford
University when it occurred. The University is about sixty miles from San Francisco. It suffered a loss of about $4,000,000
in the destruction and injury of many fine buildings. Two lives were lost one being that of a student and six other students
were quite badly injured. Communication with the outside world was immediately interrupted and it was several days before
we could get direct news from Ethel. She was not injured though when the shock occurred near 5 o'clock in the morning she
and her companions thought the world was coming to an end when the furniture was being tossed about the room and she could
see the fine structures of the university falling into shapeless masses of stone. It will be some time for our State to fully
recover from the effects of so great a calamity but San Francisco will be rebuilt because of its almost matchless harbor and
because it was proven that modern steel structures can stand uninjured after such an earthquake. To many of us who have known
that city almost all of our lives it will not probably be the San Francisco of which we were so proud. The loss resulting
from the earthquake there has been estimated at not more than $70,000,000 but the great fire with no water to stay its progress,
increased the loss to thirty times that ... "

Box 1, Folder 21

Wing, Ah: eyewitness account

Box 1, Folder 22

Wing, Ah: eyewitness account [photocopies]

Box 1, Folder 25

Telegrams1906

Series 2
Publications

Box 2, Folder 1

Sandstone and Tile, Vol. 3, No. 2, Winter 1979: "The Days That Followed the Quake."
1979

Map of part of San Francisco, California, April 18, 1908 showing buildings constructed and buildings under construction during
two years after fire of April 18, 1906. Surveyed and drawn by Punnett Brothers.
1908

Box 3, Folder 14

"Preliminary Report of the State Earthquake Investigation Commission"1906 May 31

Box 4, Folder 1

Harper's Weekly. Cover features image of damage to interior of Memorial Church.
1906 May 19